Many systems, such as sonar systems, include sensors that are remote from computing or processing circuitry that processes data received from the sensors or data that is sent to the sensors. FIG. 1 is functional block diagram that illustrates such a system 10, with sensors 12 being physically separated from remote processing circuitry 14. The sensors 12 are electrically connected to the remote processing circuitry 14 through respective filaments or cables 16. Where the system 10 is a sonar system, for example, the sensors 12 typically form a sensor array positioned on an exterior submerged portion of ship or submarine. Each of the sensors 12 is connected through a respective one of the cables 16 to the remote processing circuitry 14 located in a control or equipment room of the ship or submarine. The distance between the sensors 12 and the remote processing circuitry 14 may be quite long, requiring the cables 16 to extend relatively long distances to interconnect the two. Another example of the system 10 is a nuclear power plant, which has the sensors 12 embedded within the reactor for monitoring operating conditions. The sensors 12 are coupled through cables 16 embedded within the reactor walls and which extend relatively long distances to interconnect the sensors to remote processing circuitry 14 for controlling the overall operation of the power plant.
In the system 10, problems with the sensors 12 and cables 16 may occur over time. First, the cables 16 may be of a relatively poor quality, meaning the bandwidth of the cables is relatively low. This could be true because the system 10 is relatively old and, for example, when installed the cables 16 were envisioned as being used only for low bandwidth transmission of analog signals. As a result, the bandwidth of the cables 16 may limit the use of new more reliable sensors 12. For example, the use of digital sensors 12 that perform analog-to-digital conversion locally at the sensors may not be utilized in some instances due to the bandwidth limitations of the existing cables 16. The bandwidth of the cables 16 may in this way preclude the use of newer higher data rate sensors 12.
Due to the bandwidth limitations of the cables 16, in many instances the upgrading of the system 10 to utilize new higher data rate sensors 12 requires the cables 16 also be upgraded. Inherent characteristics of the system 10, however, may in many situations make such an electrically straightforward solution unfeasible. The cost to upgrade the cables 16 may be prohibitive, for example, thus precluding upgrade of the sensors 12. For example, where the system 10 is a nuclear power plant and the cables 16 are embedded within the nuclear reactor, the cost of shutting down the reactor, tearing out the cables from within the reactor, installing new cables, and then repairing the reactor walls from which the cables were removed may make the upgrading of the sensors 12 unfeasible. This means that with existing systems 10, the utilization of newer and higher performance sensors 12 is not available in many instances even though the use of such sensors would increase the overall performance of the system 10.
There is a need for a system and method for allowing sensors to be upgraded in systems having sensors physically separated from remote processing circuitry without the need to replace cables interconnecting the sensors and processing circuitry.